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I struggled today to find a good “Getting started with Windows Server AppFabric Cache” tutorial – either my _search fu _failed me or it simply doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, I was able to piece together the information I needed to get started.

I recommend you break this up into three steps:

• Installing Windows Server AppFabric

• Configuring Windows Server AppFabric Cache

• Testing Windows Server AppFabric Cache with Sample Apps

I think this article will serve as a good tutorial on getting started, and we can refer back to it as the basis for more advanced scenarios.

Installing Windows Serve AppFabric

1. Get the Web Platform Installer.

2. Once it is installed and opened, select Options.

   

3. Under Display additional scenarios select Enterprise.

   

4. Now you’ll see an Enterprise tab. Select it, and choose Windows Server AppFabric. Click Install. This will start a multi-step process for installing Windows Server AppFabric (which in my case required two reboots to complete).

   

Configuring Windows Server AppFabric Cache

1. Open the Windows Server AppFabric Configuration Wizard (Start –> Windows Server AppFabric –> Configure AppFabric).

2. Click Next until you reach the Caching Service step. Check Set Caching Service configuration, select SQL Server AppFabric Caching Service Configuration Store Provider for the configuration provider, and click Configure.

   

3. Check Create AppFabric Caching Service configuration database, confirm the **Server **name, and specify a Database name. Click OK.

   

4. When asked if you want to continue, click Yes.

   

5. You will receive confirmation that your database was created and registered.

   

6. On the Cache Node step, confirm the selected port nodes.

   

7. You will be asked to continue and apply the configuration settings; select Yes.

   

8. On the last step you’ll click Finish.

9. Open up an elevated **Windows PowerShell **window.

10. Add the Distributed Cache administration module

    Import-Module DistributedCacheAdministration
    

11. Set the context of your Windows PowerShell session to the desired cache cluster with Use-CacheCluster. You can run this without parameters to use the connection parameters provided during configuration.

    Use-CacheCluster
    

12. Grant your user account access to the cache cluster as a client. Specify your user and domain name.

    Grant-CacheAllowedClientAccount domainusername
    

13. Verify your user account has been granted access.

    Get-CacheAllowedClientAccounts
    

14. Start the cluster.

    Start-CacheCluster
    

Testing Windows Server AppFabric Cache with Sample Apps

1. Grab a copy of the Microsoft AppFabric Samples, which are a series of very short examples.

2. Extract the samples locally.

3. Open up CacheSampleWebApp.sln (..SamplesCacheCacheSampleWebApp).

4. Right-click the CreateOrder.aspx file and select Set As Start Page.

5. Hit F5 to start the solution.

6. Confirm that the cache is functioning by creating a sample order, getting the sample order, and updating the sample order.

Once you accomplish these three steps, you’ll have the basis for building more complex caching solutions.

I hope this helps!